Are The Shooters Frightened Yet?

Segarra's Rally

Bob Englehart

A hundred people showed up to the mayor’s rally against gun violence? That’s it? A hundred? Among a rash of gunshot victims recently, a minister was shot on the front lawn of his church while planting small American flags. A minister? There should’ve been a thousand, no, TEN thousand people at that rally. It was Mayor Segarra’s blunder from the beginning. First, he invites two prominent activist pastors to a meeting that they thought would be the beginning of a partnership with the city to actually change things. Apparently, the mayor has not spent much time in their neighborhood, so they took this as a good omen. Then, later in the week, the ministers see their organizations’ names (one mistakenly misnamed I assume by the mayor’s handlers) on a flier as participants in the mayor’s rally. Rally? What rally they asked. The ministers rightly felt as if they were being used for political purposes. It certainly looked that way. This is not how you build unity, Mr. Mayor. Unfortunately, we’re in an election year and a politician’s instinct for election or re-election kicks in and governs all parts of the brain, even the part that should know better, the part about knowing how to treat people honestly. Nobody doubts that the mayor would like to end gun violence in Hartford. The doubt comes from his way of doing it.